In Brief: Young weather controller seeking to learn to control his powers, and maybe see a bit more of the world beyond Oklahoma.
Micah is the picture of a still-growing teenage boy; his frame is somewhere between "lanky" and "filled out", but he's been told he's still got some growing to do. His father was over 6 feet tall, after all. Micah's hair tends to be kept short right now, mostly due to his mother wanting him to look good for "that nice school out East". His skin bears a fair deal of tanning, but other than a small scar on the back of his left hand ("accident in the kitchen with a can of beans"), is free of marks or blemishes.
Micah tends to wear rugged clothes, with a preference for jeans and thicker t-shirts, complimented by a denim jacket. If dressing up, he does have a simple black suit, which he wears surprisingly well, but those on-campus may well never see him in it. He owns a couple of ribbon shirts, but is leery of wearing them for fear of looking "too stereotypical".
As Thunderbird, he currently wears a sleeveless version of the Claremont uniform, complimented with fingerless gloves, a sturdy bandanna across his mouth, and a large, sturdy pair of goggles that cover his eyes and give protection against possible debris and irritants.
Micah possess the metahuman ability to control weather. This typically manifests as him summoning up winds, lightning, and perhaps rain or hail. The lightning he directly summons is often tinged green, apparently a "tell" that it is artificially summoned; if he manipulates the weather as a whole to create conditions that support lightning, those strikes will look normal. When manipulating weather on a large scale, he sometimes manifests an aura colored like the Aurora Borealis. When flying above 100 miles an hour, he begins to manifest the same effect, but focused into a pair of wing-like shapes. Micah's control over wind is particularly excellent, enough to allow him to utilize it as a "speed booster" alongside bursts of ionic energy, such that even aside from flight itself, he is capable of delivering a high-speed barrage of blows. As an adaptation for this and for high-speed flight in general, his ability to process and react to information is high above the average person. As well, his body has adapted itself to function not only at high speeds, but high altitudes.
Beyond high-speed strikes and blasts of lightning, Micah has one last option to bring directly against an opponent in a fight. He calls it the "Borealis Burst", since the manifestation includes a large burst of light similar to the Aurora. This veritable explosion of lightning, thunder, and wind is liable to knock over most any opponent while also given them more than one kind of headache.
All of these things are accomplished, at their core, by Micah's powers manipulating ionization of the air, temperature patterns, and the rate of condensation in an area. By wildly changing these factors far outside the normal, natural rates, he is capable of manifesting and manipulating weather in the blink of an eye. By channeling these manipulations to himself, he achieves his flight, speed, and other close-range abilities.
Micah grew up knowing where he came from. Where his parents, and their parents before them, came from. What his people had been through, but also what they were working to become. Micah was, if not immersed in Cherokee culture, very much exposed to and living in it all of his life. His father worked for the Cherokee Marshal Services, and his mother still works as a teacher of both the Cherokee language, and literature classes at the high school level. His grandparents on his father's side live on a farm well outside of Oklahoma City, and his mother's parents live on the outskirts of Muskogee, still helping run a local store for both Native American and tourist customers.
Micah himself was born in Tahlequah, to a pair of loving, humble parents. He grew up knowing the traditions he came from, and was taught Cherokee and English in almost the same breaths. He went to school with only Cherokee kids during his younger years, and that was a grand old time.
Then Lawrence Roebuck had a heart attack and died right before Micah would have gone to middle school. In the aftermath of the loss, Micah and his mother ended up moving to Bartlesville, to live with his Aunt and Uncle William and Tess. And his cousin Janet, whose older age had Micah referring to her as "Aunt Janet" (much to her vexation) was Micah's largest role model. He'd always been interested in cars, bikes, and other machines with engines, but her career in the Air Force piqued his interest in flying machines, especially jets. And his lanky frame lent itself well to the running that his Aunt Janet had done in her own time on the track team.
However, while the presence of family helped heal some wounds, middle school made others on its own. For the first time, Micah was not in a Cherokee-only school, and his first encounters with children outside the tight-knit sphere of the Cherokee Nation was...mixed. Amelia tried to find a way to get him back into the old school system, but couldn't find a way for them to both stay in Bartlesville and get him into a Cherokee-only school. It wasn't long before he found himself clashing with the much more intensely clique-centric culture around him, and enduring more than a few rounds of teasing based on his background, as if one town in Oklahoma was that significantly different from another. While certainly not the same scope of problems and struggles others of his ancestry might face, for a young boy they were difficult things indeed. Micah withdrew from most all of his schoolmates, mostly spending time with those who came from the Nation or one of the other Tribes in Oklahoma (the city drew people from fairly wide backgrounds and areas in the state, all things considered). He kept his mouth shut and smiling at home; his mother was working more hours, not only teaching but also tutoring, to help make ends meet. William and Tess were doing what they could, but times were lean even for them; Janet would send back money sometimes, but William and Tess typically rejected the gesture if it wasn't to help with a particular bill. So Micah got to add being a poor kid, who didn't have a dad, to the list of things he was teased for and just bottled up.
When he got to junior high, Micah joined the track and field team, looking to use sports as at least something of an escape; the school didn't have an auto club, and trying to copy his "aunt" was the next best thing. While Janet had been a distance runner and jumper, Micah found himself excelling at sprinting and the discus. He wasn't necessarily a shoe-in to get the gold at state, but he did well enough that some of the social pressure eased up, even if just by virtue of more attention in general being on him. After a while, he even started to make friends with the various boys on the track team. Even if they occasionally asked insensitive questions or told jokes that just made him flinch; at least they'd apologize for them when he told them why. Micah opened up, just a bit. He even talked to his mom about what he'd gone through in middle school, and endured The Talk from her.
Micah's freshman year was when things changed. Just as spring turned and they were entering the "final stretch" of the year, and as the track team was going to the regional meet that would set them up for state, things changed. The night after the meet, a supercell storm cropped up when, by all rights, it should have been a cool, clear night. The heroine Stormchaser raced to the scene, and diffused a tornado before it touched down, less than a mile from Micah's hotel. However, when two more funnels tried to form, Stormchaser realized that, intentionally or not, someone in the area was using powers similar to hers. She could "taste" the ionization in the air, could tell it was working similar, but not the same, as hers. After almost an hour, Stormchaser felt the last ebbs of the power stop, and the storm calm into a normal rainstorm, instead of what could have been the most destructive storm of the year.
Two days later she got a frantic call from her parents about how she needed to talk to Micah. He finished the year out at school, but as soon as track was done, any and all after-school activities stopped. He grew distant from the friends he'd made, keeping in touch mainly with texts. Finally, they found out he was going to some fancy school out East the next year, his sophomore year; some of his friends grew angry, others promised to stay in touch. None of them were told the truth: that Micah had awakened an enormously powerful gift that he needed help learning to control, help that his cousin couldn't dedicate to help him. So instead, he was going to attend Claremont Academy.
Micah is a young man who's almost desperate to figure out his place in the world. His life has had multiple upsets, and this latest one, of both gaining great and terrible power and then moving half a country away from his family and friends, has left him all but reeling. In response, he turns inward, seeking to focus on schoolwork, working on a car (if he can manage it), or perhaps playing on his guitar somewhere no one (supposedly) can find him. There are times he seeks out or "allows" himself to be put in extroverted situations, but the motivation is difficult. When it comes to his actual schoolwork, Micah is determined to excel, to prove any of the jerks from years ago wrong about how stupid he is. Even if he doesn't get flawless grades, his determination means he rarely falls behind.
One of Micah's core motivating ideas is "living up to the legacy" of both his father and his cousin. His father was a good, just, kind man who made his mother happy and taught him everything he could in the time they had together. His cousin is a veteran and a superhero, someone casually at ease with both, and who, despite wielding enormous power, is more than willing to spend time with family, friends, and even random people, just to make their day better. Micah often measures himself against what he imagines either of them might do in a situation, which of course leaves him falling short and frustrated.
Micah tends to be very level-headed and slow to anger; years of dealing with bullies and ignorant folks means he has practice with patience (as his mother likes to say). However, if pushed to anger, he gets angry, and is somewhat likely to get physical. The same levelheadedness meas he tends to be very reserved in general; unfortunately, the same principle of "holding it down until it bursts forth" holds true, especially with him being in the roaring midst of puberty. Micah's emotions tend to spike a bit if he's pushed past a certain point. Which can be a bad combination with his powers. His patience for ignorant questions from clueless people is present, but by no means endless, and if he senses he is being intentionally mocked, it quickly shortens his temper.
Before getting his powers, Micah wanted to be a pilot like his cousin. After getting his powers, he found himself unsure if that's still his dream, since he can fly on his own now. He knows what he likes to do, but isn't sure if those hobbies are where he wants to take his career. Despite everyone telling him he has years before he needs to decide, he is already feeling pressure within himself to decide a path and start preparing for it.
Some of Micah's favorite musicians and groups include Johnny Cash, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and other classic country, bluegrass, and rock artists and groups; more recently he's been trying out genres like metal or modern rock, though he's reluctant to pick favorites just yet.
If pushed to fight, Micah tends to be quiet and focused, sometimes to his detriment; he has a tendency to doggedly work on something until it's done, be it a term paper or a single opponent in a fight. This mono-focus means he handles single opponents well, but when dealing with larger groups of foes, he can have a few moments of indecision.
His primary tools in a fight are his rapid-fire strikes with his arms and legs, and his potent blasts of lightning. Often he opens up from a distance with the lightning, and only starts trying to punch people when they've closed the distance; Thunderbird's powers lend themselves to working at a distance, and he has had little reason to decide to do otherwise. If engaged in melee, Micah tends to start with what he views as the easiest target, and try to use his superior speed and maneuverability to quickly dispatch a great number of enemies.
If faced with a situation where he needs to shift things in favor of the heroes rapidly, or perhaps do something like cover an escape, he will rapidly and dramatically shift the weather in an area (albeit one smaller than what his cousin can affect) to impede his foes. He's reluctant to use this in the course of a normal fight, but depending on the situation he can apply it with just enough finesse to avoid too much friendly fire.
The Borealis Burst, though, is very consciously a measure of last resort. Not only does it leave him drained, but the area it affects is larger even than his general control over the weather. The fact that it leaves deafened, disoriented, and knocked-down targets of its indiscriminate shockwave in his wake means he's barely even tried generating this burst of power. Thunderbird is unlikely to deploy this unless he has no other choice that he can discern.
Beyond his offensive powers and approach, Thunderbird is a blindingly fast flyer whose body and mind can naturally adapt to the heights and speeds he achieves, though he has found he needs goggles to keep his eyes from being damaged by high-speed but minuscule debris.
Thunder Rolls and Lightning Strikes: Micah's patience is rather good for a teenage boy, but it's not infinite, and when it begins to wear thin, he is likely to have an explosive outburst of anger. This may cause friction with his team, distract him in a fight, or even briefly surge his powers out of his control.
Every Nightmare Blown Away: Micah's control over his powers is currently nearly non-existent while asleep. Most nights this is a non-issue; his dreams are calm and disassociated enough no real changes happen in local weather patterns. But if he experiences intensely emotional dreams, especially nightmares, it can radically and dangerously shift the weather. To prevent destruction brought on by indigestion-induced bad dreams, Micah must wear special power-dampening bands around his head, wrists, and ankles. These bands are easy to remove (1 full action), but until all of them are off his powers won't function properly, or at all, leaving him a fairly mundane human being.
Every Storm Runs Out of Rain: Micah's powers work in most any outdoor conditions, seeing as they can manipulate the environment to produce weather. However, if he finds himself in a tightly-closed system (such as a hermetically sealed building, a spaceship or station, or inside some kind of powerful shield or the like), he may have difficulty manifesting the full measure of his powers.
Cold Kentucky Rain: While Micah's powers work in most extremes, sufficiently low temperatures may also impede his powers, more so than extreme heat. If it's cold enough, his speed might drop and his lightning struggle to work, though Micah would likely be able to manipulate any existing weather and moisture in that environment.
Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree: Micah's powers can sometimes cause more damage in an area than expected. High-speed winds can be extremely dangerous, and if there's sufficient debris around, any wide-area usage of Micah's powers risks possibly shredding friend and foe alike, something that might well stay the weather controller's hand at using such power at all.
Sky Is Falling Through: Controlling the weather is tricky at the best of times. While Micah's speed and thunderbolts are no real risk, his manipulation of wider weather area, as well as the Borealis Burst, run the risk of getting carried away even when their effects normally fade. Given just the right combination of factors, a pocket of weather created and molded by Micah may not fade, but instead grow out of control when released from his "grip", growing into a full storm of its own right; sometimes this artificial storm may horribly mismatch the existing weather patterns, or just build on what was there already.
Song of a Summertime Storm: Micah is a young man of a heritage that's pretty rare in Freedom City, far from home and family, struggling to maintain not only his own secret identity, but more importantly his cousin's secret identity. That's a lot of balls for a kid to juggle.
The build itself is blatantly stealing from Gizmo's Rainbow Dash build.